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99% of all businesses in Europe are small to medium-sized; in fact, 92% are micro-businesses with less than 10 employees. According to the European Employment Observatory Review 2010, the total number of self-employed people in the European Union is 32.5 million, accounting for about 15% of total employment. The report acknowledges that ‘Self-employment is an important driver of entrepreneurship and job creation and thus contributes to the European Union’s goals of more growth and better jobs’. Figures from an EU-commissioned Study on the SME’s impact on the EU labour market published in January 2012 further confirm this.

In 2009, ‘necessity entrepreneurs’ made up 2 million people in the EU-27. In many European countries, this number is increasing. The economic and social impact of necessity entrepreneurship is significant: according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, about one third of the companies questioned responded that they had created between one and five new jobs between 2008 and 2010.